James Surowiecki Quotes

Even before the [2008] recession, corporations were able to enhance profitability by taking advantage of using technology to perform or supplement the work of human beings. This was, on the whole, a manageable situation. Workers who were replaced by the technology were adapting by learning how to work with the technology; jobs in technology opened up to balance the jobs lost. The current situation is far different. During the recession, companies learned how to maintain production and profits with fewer employees. They assigned existing workers to take on tasks performed by those who were laid off, they converted full-time jobs to part-time jobs (which carried little or no expense to the company for employee benefits), and they outsourced.

Technology, outsourcing, a growing temp staffing industry, productivity efficiencies, have all replaced the middle class.

Only in a minority of cases will workmen be able to recognize the technological change responsible for their dismissal. For this it would be necessary that machines be introduced in an existent plant under the eyes of the workmen and that dismissal be effected immediately after.

Job loss is coming like a tsunami.

We only invest in businesses that reduce labor.

The minute you do any layoffs, you might as well lay off the whole joint because everybody forgets about the customer and worries about their job security.

Nothing kills your company's culture like layoffs.

It's crazy to go into manufacturing. That's not where the money is.

In the career world we are downsizing. That means the one person that will keep their job will do three or four jobs for the same amount of money. You have to be that way these days.

I am proud of the fact that the U.K. is an open trading country. I welcome inward investment such as that of Nissan, and the takeover of struggling British companies by foreign companies who turn them around, as in the case of Jaguar Land Rover. I also accept that job losses sometimes have to occur to restore failing companies to health.

There isn't a single business where anybody feels secure.

Strapped by tight credit and plummeting sales, businesses have overhauled the way they manage supply chains, inventory, production practices and staffing.

But I don't want massive layoffs of anyone - public or private. We are planning on shrinking government through attrition and reform, not through random pink slips.

We've lost 3,000 jobs in Beaufort County. We've lost half of our manufacturing workforce.

There will always be a business cycle, and white-collar workers will get hit in the next recession like they always do in recessions.

From the very first time I talked to Safeco employees, I said the reality was expenses were too high and the reality is two-thirds of our expenses are people, so the reality is there will be effects on people.

The most efficient labor-saving device is still money.

Trade helps bring us products cheaply, but there is no guarantee whatsoever to assume that it will allow us to replace the jobs that have been lost, and there is no mechanism under productivity that says that, either.

A research group found that 56 percent of major companies surveyed in the late '80s agreed that 'employees who are loyal to the company and further its business goals deserve an assurance of continued employment.' A decade later, only 6 percent agreed. It was in the '90s that companies started weeding people out as a form of cost reduction.

Much of what is called investment is actually nothing more than mergers and acquisitions, and of course mergers and acquisitions are generally accompanied by downsizing.

We held the team together for as long as possible and then sent all except the most critical personnel home.

Things are bad in 2001 at Yahoo. There's been layoffs, restructuring, lots of people left.

People are worried about what’s going to happen to their jobs. There’s a lot of off-shoring and out-sourcing taking place. There’s a lot more mobility of labor and of people. Unless we explain what’s happening, people will resort to protectionism and xenophobia.

Every person who is laid off in our society is in effect told that he is a person of little worth.

You can fire your workers, close your factories, export your jobs overseas, and get a tax deduction for doing it.